Naked Came the Vampire (Hypernaturals 1)

Where Do We Go From Here?

Jessica's condo features a small private balcony outside the upstairs master bedroom. I could see a number of other similar balconies from where I stood, though no one else was outside in the cold night air. Most people seemed to be sensibly tucked away in their beds. Since Ski season has not yet started, maybe they were empty?

I looked up at the scenery. The nearby mountains. The Milky Way galaxy. I dated a woman who came with me on ski trips, but who never skied. She sat at the condo, looking out at the scenery, and enjoyed the view. Wrapped in a blanket, reading and every now and then looking out the window at the winter wonderland. She seemed a lifetime ago. I guess it is if I am a different species now.

I looked back inside through the double pane sliding glass doors at the huge bed on the opposite wall. I could clearly see the precious occupants: Jessica sound asleep, Snowball, looking contented and curled in the crook of her arm.

Before Jessica fell asleep, we snuggled. An intimate discussion about my new reality. Some things are best discussed naked and in each other's arms.

As tired and sated as I am, my mind will not turn off.

Being awake is a nightmare. Awake is unreal. Dreamlike. There is no telling what waits for me in dreams.

I am not human anymore.

There is no way to attain an instant and unquestioning acceptance of something like that, even when presented to me by the love of my life, who has liquid dripping fangs!

Our first lovemaking where we knew I am a Vampire or for that matter, where I knew Jessica is a Vampire. Holy shit! So very slow and nice. A new and different kind of affection. The loving tender in subtle new ways. She teased me by calling me a 'baby Vampire'. The gentleness not because I am not even halfway healed. Something else.

Marvin's Gaye's song about 'Sexual Healing' occurred to me as we made love. I'm only human. Or not, I guess. I did not sing it though. Or humm it. Pretty sure: If I did, Jessica didn't hit me for it.

Everything everywhere on me aches and itches. I envy the supernatural Vampires of fiction: Sip blood from a mesmerized and willing victim. Their eyes would glow in supernatural satisfaction, and then poof! All better.

Post deer processing plant I would be stone dead if I wasn't a real Vampire. If I were somehow still alive and still human I would be crippled for life at the very least. I cannot deceive myself. I am torn on why I would even try. I was trying.

I want to be angry. Even to blame Jessica. I mean really: Vampires? Come on!

Factual denial battled with incontrovertible proofs. I can feel and test my new physical strength. See and hear beyond human range. Recover from a beating that should have killed me. I could walk after being hung by my ankles.

I avoided thinking about those moments when I had been sure I was about to be gutted by thinking about evidence and facts. Jessica can carry me like I weigh next to nothing. It is a good thing she is gentle when we have sex because I can feel her strength in check. When she wrapped her legs around me to encourage and guide she could just as easily snap me like a twig. I remembered how she ascended from the lake on the back of the 'Nightwing' and it made so much more sense now. I am not so much clumsy as she is superhuman.

That now I can suddenly be with Jessica, at least for a while, is less difficult to accept than the cost: My mortality and 'human-ness'. Not humanity. It is clear that Vampires still have that. Jessica never would have followed Arnold when she saw him loading the body without having her humanity still. She could have checked out. Said 'not my problem'. Jessica could never do that. Just being a Vampire does not mean you lose who you are.